Chapter IX: Part 9

VIII. After this they allowed the king's property to be plundered, and destroyed the palace. Tarquinius had obtained the pleasantest part of the Field of Mars, and had consecrated it to that god. This field had just been cut, and the corn lay on the ground, for the people thought that they must not thresh it or make any use of it, because of the ground being consecrated, so they took the sheaves and threw them into the river. In the same way they cut down the trees and threw them in, leaving the whole place for the god, but uncultivated and unfruitful. As there were many things of different sorts all floating together in the river, the current did not carry them far, but when the first masses settled on a shallow place, the rest which were carried down upon them could not get past, but became heaped up there, and the stream compacted them securely by the mud which it deposited upon them, not only increasing the size of the whole mass, but firmly cementing it together. The waves did not shake it, but gently beat it into a solid consistency. Now, from its size, it began to receive additions, as most of what the river brought down settled upon it. It is now a sacred island close by the city, with temples and walks, and in the Latin tongue it has a name which means "between two bridges." Some state that this did not happen when Tarquinia's field was consecrated, but in later times when Tarquinia gave up another field next to that one, for the public use. This Tarquinia was a priestess, one of the Vestal virgins, and she was greatly honoured for having done so, and was allowed to appear as a witness in court, which no other woman could do; she also was permitted to marry, by a decree of the senate, but did not avail herself of it. These are the legends which they tell about this island.

IX. Tarquin now gave up all hopes of recovering his throne by intrigue, and appealed to the Etruscans, who willingly espoused his cause and endeavoured to restore him with a great army. The consuls led out the Romans to fight against them, posting them in holy places one of which is called the Arsian grove, and another the Aesuvian meadow. When they were about to join battle, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, attacked one another, not by chance, but with fell hatred and rage, the one urging his horse against the tyrant and enemy of his country, the other against the man who drove him into exile. Falling upon one another with more fury than judgment, they made no attempt to defend themselves, but only to strike, and both perished. The struggle, so terribly begun, was continued with equal ferocity on both sides, until the armies, after great losses, were separated by a tempest. Valerius was in great straits, not knowing how the battle had gone, and observing that his soldiers were despondent when they looked at the corpses of their comrades, and elated when they saw those of the enemy, so equal and undecided had been the slaughter. Yet each side, when it viewed its own dead close by, was more inclined to own itself defeated, than to claim the victory because of the supposed losses of the enemy. Night came on, and it was spent as may be imagined by men who had fought so hard. When all was quiet in both camps, we are told that the grove was shaken, and that from it proceeded a loud voice which declared that the Etruscans had lost one man more than the Romans. Apparently it was the voice of a god; for immediately the Romans raised a bold and joyous shout, and the Etruscans, panic-stricken, ran out of their camp and dispersed. The Romans attacked the camp, took prisoners all that were left in it, something less than five thousand, and plundered it. The dead, when counted, proved to be eleven thousand three hundred of the enemy, and of the Romans the same number save one. This battle is said to have been fought on the Calends of March. Valerius triumphed after it in a four-horse chariot, being the first consul that ever did so. And it was a magnificent sight, and did not, as some say, offend the spectators; for, if so, the habit of doing it would not have been so carefully kept up for so many years. The people were also pleased with the honours which Valerius paid to his colleague in arranging a splendid funeral for him; he also pronounced a funeral oration over him, which was so much approved of by the Romans that from that day forth it became the custom for all good and great men at their deaths to have an oration made over them by the leading men of the time. This is said to have been older even than the Greek funeral orations, unless, as Anaximenes tells us, Solon introduced this custom.

X. But the people were vexed and angry, because though Brutus, whom they thought the author of their liberty, would not be consul alone, but had one colleague after another, yet "Valerius," they said, "has got all power into his own hands, and is not so much the heir of the consulship of Brutus as of the tyranny of Tarquin. And what use is it for him to praise Brutus while he imitates Tarquin in his deeds, swaggering down into the Forum with all the rods and axes before him, from a house larger than the king's palace used to be." Indeed, Valerius lived in rather too splendid a house on the Velian Hill, looking down into the Forum, and difficult to climb up to, so that when he walked down from it he did indeed look like a tragedy king leaving his palace. But now he proved how valuable a thing it is for a statesman engaged in important matters to keep his ears open to the truth, and shut against flattery. Hearing from his friends what the people thought of him, he did not argue or grieve at it, but suddenly assembled a number of workmen and during the night destroyed his entire house down to the very foundations, so that on the next day the Romans collected in crowds to see it, admiring the magnanimity of the man, but sorrowing at the destruction of so great and noble a house, which, like many a man, had been put to death undeservedly, and expressing their concern for their consul, who had no house to live in. Valerius, indeed, had to be entertained by his friends, until the people gave him a site and built him a house upon it, of more moderate proportions than the other, in the place where at the present day stands the temple of Vica Pota. Wishing to make not only himself but his office cease to be an object of terror to his countrymen, he removed the axes from the bundles of rods carried by the lictors, and when he entered the assembly of the people he ordered his _fasces_ to be bowed and lowered before them, to show respect to the majesty of the people. This custom the consuls observe to this day. By these acts he did not really humble himself as he appeared to the Romans to be doing, but he so completely destroyed any illwill which had been felt against him that by giving up the semblance of power he really gained the reality, as the people were eager to serve him and obey him. For this reason they surnamed him _Poplicola_, which means "lover of the people," and this name so took the place of his former one that we shall use it during the remainder of this account of his life.

XI. He permitted any one to become a candidate for the consulship; and while he was sole consul he used his power to effect the greatest of his reforms, because he did not know who his new colleague might be, and whether he would not thwart him through ignorance or illwill. First of all he brought up the senate to its proper number, for many senators had perished, some at Tarquin's hands in former years, and some in the late battle. It is said that he elected no less than a hundred and sixty-four new senators. After this, he enacted laws which greatly added to the power of the people, the first one of which gave accused persons a power of appeal from the decision of the consuls to the people. The second appointed the penalty of death to those who entered upon any public office without the consent of the people. The third was to assist the poor, as it relieved them from taxes and enabled them all to apply themselves with greater assiduity to trade. The law, too, which he enacted about disobedience to the consuls is no less popular in its spirit, and favours the people more than the great nobles. He assessed the fine for disobedience at the price of five oxen and two sheep. Now the value of a sheep was ten obols, and that of an ox a hundred, for at this period the Romans did not make much use of coined money, but possessed abundance of cattle. For this reason at this day they call property _peculia_, from _pecus_, a sheep, and on their oldest coins they marked the figure of an ox, a sheep, or a pig. Their children, too, were distinguished by the names of Suillii, Bubulci, Caprarii and Porcii, for _capra_ means a goat, and _porcus_ a pig.

XII. Though Poplicola favoured the people so much in these laws, and showed such great moderation, yet in one instance he appointed a terrible penalty. One of his laws enacted that any citizen was at liberty to put to death anyone who tried to make himself king, without any form of trial. No penalty was to be enforced, if the man could bring forward proofs of the other's intention. His reason for this was that it was impossible for any one to attempt to make himself king, unperceived by some of his countrymen, but quite possible for him, although detected, to become too powerful to be brought to trial. So, before he made his attempt on the crown, any one was at liberty to exact from him that penalty, which he would be unable to do after his success.

His law about the treasury was also much approved. It being necessary that the citizens should contribute taxes to carry on the war, as he did not wish to touch the revenue himself or to allow his friends to do so, and was even unwilling that the public money should be brought into a private man's house, he appointed the Temple of Saturn to be used as a treasury, which it is to this day, and he appointed also two of the younger citizens as quaestors, to manage the accounts. The first quaestors were Publius Venturius and Marcus Minucius, and a large sum of money was collected, for a hundred and thirty thousand persons were taxed, although orphans and widows were exempted.

When he had settled all these matters, he nominated Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, as his colleague, and gave up the _fasces_ to him as a mark of respect, because he was the elder man. This custom, that the elder of the two consuls has the _fasces_ carried before him, remains to this day. As Lucretius died shortly afterwards, a new election took place, and Marcus Horatius was elected, and acted as Poplicola's colleague for the remainder of his year of office.

XIII. As Tarquin was stirring up the Etruscans to a second war with Rome, a great portent is said to have taken place. While he was yet king, and had all but finished the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, he, either in accordance with some prophecy or otherwise, ordered certain Etruscan workmen at Veii to make an earthenware four-horse chariot to be placed on the top of the temple. Shortly afterwards he was driven from the throne, and the chariot, which had been modelled in clay, was placed in the furnace. Here it did not, as clay generally does, shrink and become smaller in the fire, as the wet dries out of it, but swelled to so great a size, and became so hard and strong that it could only be got out of the furnace by taking off the roof and sides. As this was decided by the prophets to be a sign from Heaven that those who possessed the chariot would be prosperous and fortunate, the Veientines determined not to give it up to the Romans, arguing that it belonged to Tarquin, not to those who had cast him out.

A few days afterwards there were horse-races there; everything proceeded as usual, but as the driver of the winning chariot, after receiving his crown as victor, was driving slowly out of the circus, the horses suddenly became excited for no apparent cause, and, either guided by Heaven or by chance, rushed towards Rome, their driver with them, for he finding it impossible to stop them was forced to let them whirl him along until they reached the Capitol, where they threw him down near what is called the Ratumenan Gate. The Veientines, struck with fear and wonder at this event, permitted the workmen to deliver up the earthenware chariot to the Romans.

XIV. Tarquinius the son of Demaratus, when at war with the Sabines, vowed that he would build the temple of Jupiter Olympius, but it was built by Tarquinius Superbus, the son or grandson of him who made the vow. He had not time to dedicate it, but was dethroned just before its completion. Now when it was finished and thoroughly decorated, Poplicola was eager to have the glory of dedicating it. Many of the nobles, however, grudged him this, and were more incensed at this than at all the glory which he had won as a general and as a legislator; for _that_, they said, was his vocation, but _this_ was not. They stirred up Horatius to oppose him and urged him to claim the right to dedicate the temple. So when Poplicola was of necessity absent on military service, the senate decreed that Horatius should dedicate it, and brought him up into the Capitol to do so, a thing which they never could have done had Poplicola been present. Some say that the two consuls casts lots, and that the one, sorely against his will, drew the lot to command the army in the field, and the other that to dedicate the temple. But we may conjecture how this was, from the events which took place at the dedication. On the Ides of September, which corresponds with the full moon in our month Metageitnion, all the people assembled in the Capitol, and Horatius, after silence had been enjoined upon all, performed the ceremony of dedication. When, as is customary, he was about to take hold of the doors of the temple and say the prayer of dedication, Marcus, Poplicola's brother, who had long been standing near the doors watching his opportunity, said to him, "Consul, your son has just died of sickness in the camp." All who heard this were grieved, but Horatius, undisturbed, merely said, "Fling his corpse where you please, for I cannot grieve for him," and completed the dedication service. The story was false, invented by Marcus to confuse Horatius. His conduct is a remarkable instance of presence of mind, whether it be that he at once saw through the trick, or believed the story and was not disturbed by it.

XV. The same fortune seems to have attended the second temple also. The first, as we have related, was built by Tarquin, and dedicated by Horatius. This was destroyed by fire in the civil wars. The second was built by Sulla, but the name of Catulus appears as its dedicator, for Sulla died before it was completed. This again was burned during the civil tumults in the time of Vitellius, and Vespasian built a third, which had nearly the same fortune as the others, except that he saw it completed, and did not see it shortly afterwards destroyed, being thus more fortunate than Tarquin in seeing the completion, and than Sulla in seeing the dedication of his work. When Vespasian died the Capitol was burned. The fourth and present temple was built and dedicated by Domitian. It is said that Tarquin spent forty thousand pounds of silver in building the foundations; but there is no private citizen in Rome at the present day who could bear the expense of gilding the existing temple, which cost more than twelve thousand talents. Its columns are of Pentelic marble, exquisitely proportioned, which I myself saw at Athens; but at Rome they were again cut and polished, by which process they did not gain so much in gloss as they lost in symmetry, for they now appear too slender. However, if any one who wonders at the expense of the temple in the Capitol were to see the splendour of any one portico, hall, or chamber in the house of Domitian, he would certainly be led to parody that line of Epicharmus upon an extravagant fellow,

"Not good-natured, but possessed with the disease of giving,"

and would say that Domitian was not pious or admirable, but possessed with the disease of building, and turned everything into bricks and mortar, just as it is said Midas turned things into gold. So much for this.

XVI. Tarquin, after the great battle in which his son was slain by Brutus, took refuge at Clusium and begged Lars Porsena, the most powerful king in Italy, to assist him. He was thought to be an honourable and ambitious man, and promised his aid. First he sent an embassy to Rome, ordering them to receive Tarquin; and when the Romans refused to obey, he declared war against them, and telling them at what place and time he would attack them, marched against them with a great army. At Rome, Poplicola, though absent, was chosen consul for the second time, and with him, Titus Lucretius. He returned to Rome, and by way of putting a slight upon Porsena, went and founded the city of Sigliuria, while his army was close at hand. He built the walls of this place at a vast expense, and sent away seven hundred colonists to it, as if the war with which he was menaced was a very unimportant matter. But, nevertheless, Porsena made a sharp assault upon the walls of Rome, drove away the garrison, and very nearly entered the town. Poplicola forestalled him by sallying from one of the gates, and fought by the banks of the Tiber against overwhelming numbers until he was severely wounded and had to be carried out of the battle. As the same fate befell his colleague Lucretius, the Romans lost heart and endeavoured to save themselves by flight into the town. As the enemy also began to push across the wooden bridge, Rome was in danger of being taken. But Horatius, surnamed Cocles, and with him two of the noblest citizens, named Herminius and Lartius, held the wooden bridge against them. This Horatius was surnamed Cocles because he had lost an eye in the wars, or as some say because of the flatness of his nose, which made his eyes and eyebrows seem to meet, having nothing to separate them, and therefore the people meaning to call him Cyclops, by a mistake of pronunciation, named him Cocles. This man stood at the end of the bridge and kept off the enemy until his friends behind had cut down the bridge. Then he plunged into the river in his armour and swam to the other bank, though wounded by an Etruscan spear in the thigh. Poplicola, in admiration of his valour, at once proposed and passed a decree that every Roman should give him the price of one day's provisions. Moreover, he gave him as much land as he could plough in one day. And a brazen statue of him was placed in the temple of Vulcan, by which honourable allusion was made to the lameness caused by his wound.

XVII. As Porsena pressed the siege, the Romans suffered from famine, and another separate army of Etruscans invaded their territory. But Poplicola, who was now consul for the third time, though he thought it his chief duty to remain stedfast and hold out the city against Porsena, did nevertheless sally out and attack these men, routing them with a loss of five thousand. Now as to the legend of Mucius, it is told in many different ways, but I will relate it as it seems most probable that it happened. He was a man of great courage, and very daring in war, who, meaning to assassinate Porsena, stole into the camp in an Etruscan dress and speaking the Etruscan language. When he arrived at the raised platform on which the king was sitting, he did not exactly know which was he, and being afraid to ask, he drew his sword and killed the man who of all the party looked most as if he were the king. Hereupon, he was seized and questioned. A fire was burning close by in a brazier which had been brought for Porsena to offer sacrifice. Mucius held his right hand over this, and while the flesh was being consumed looked at Porsena cheerfully and calmly, until he in astonishment acquitted him and restored him his sword, which Mucius took with his left hand. On account of this he is said to have been named _Scaevola_, which means left-handed. He then said that though he did not fear Porsena, he was conquered by his generosity, and out of kindness would tell him what torture would have failed to extort: "Three hundred young Romans like-minded with myself are at present concealed in your camp. I was chosen by lot to make the first attempt, and am not grieved that I failed to kill a man of honour, who ought to be a friend rather than an enemy to the Romans." Porsena, hearing this, believed it to be true, and became much more inclined to make peace, not, I imagine, so much for fear of the three hundred, as out of admiration for the spirit and valour of the Romans. This Mucius is called Scaevola by all writers, but Athenodorus, the son of Sandon, in his book which is dedicated to Octavia, the sister of Caesar Augustus, says that he was also named Posthumus.

XVIII. Poplicola, who did not think Porsena so terrible as an enemy as he would be valuable as a friend and ally, was willing that he should decide the quarrel between the Romans and Tarquin, and often proposed that he should do so, feeling sure that he would discover him to be a wretch who had been most deservedly dethroned. But Tarquin roughly answered that he would submit his claims to no judge, and least of all to Porsena, who had been his ally and now seemed inclined to desert him. Porsena was angered at this, and, as his son Aruns also pleaded hard for the Romans, put an end to the war upon condition that they should give up the portion of Etruscan territory which they had seized, restore their prisoners, and receive back their deserters. Upon this, ten youths of the noblest families were given as hostages, and as many maidens, among whom was Valeria, the daughter of Poplicola.

XIX. While these negotiations were going on, and Porsena, through his confidence in the good faith of the Romans, had relaxed the discipline of his camp, these Roman maidens came down to bathe in the river at a place where a bank, in the form of a crescent, makes the water smooth and undisturbed. As they saw no guards, nor any one passing except in boats, they determined to swim across, although the stream was strong and deep. Some say that one of them, by name Cloelia, rode on a horse across the river, encouraging the others as they swam. When they had got safe across they went to Poplicola, but he was displeased with them because it made him seem more faithless than Porsena, and he feared lest this daring feat of the maidens might be suspected of being a preconcerted plot of the Romans. For these reasons he sent them back to Porsena. Now Tarquin and his party, foreseeing that this would be done, laid an ambush on the further bank and attacked those who were escorting the girls with superior numbers. Still they made a stout defence, and meanwhile Valeria, the daughter of Poplicola, made her way through the combatants and escaped, and three slaves who also got away took care of her. The others were mixed up with the fight, and were in considerable danger, when Aruns, Porsena's son, came to the rescue, put the enemy to the rout, and saved the Romans. When the girls were brought before Porsena, he asked which it was that had conceived the attempt to escape and encouraged the others. Being told that it was Cloelia, he smiled kindly upon her, and presented her with one of his own horses, splendidly caparisoned. This is relied upon by those who say that it was Cloelia alone who rode on horseback over the river, as proving their case. Others say that it was not because she used a horse, but to honour her manly spirit that the Etruscan king made her this present. A statue of her, on horseback, stands in the Sacred Way as you go up to the Palatine Hill, which by some is said not to be a statue of Cloelia, but of Valeria.

Porsena, after making peace with the Romans, among many other instances of generosity, ordered his army to carry back nothing but their arms when they retired, leaving the entrenched camp full of food and property of every kind for the Romans. For this reason, at the present day, whenever there is a sale of any public property, especially that which is taken in war, proclamation is always made, "Porsena's goods for sale," so that the Romans have never forgotten the kindness which they received from him. A brazen statue of him used to stand near the senate house, of plain and oldfashioned workmanship.

XX. After this the Sabines invaded the country. Marcus Valerius, Poplicola's brother, and Posthumius Tubertus were then consuls, and Marcus, acting by the advice of Poplicola, who was present, won two great battles, in the second of which he slew thirteen thousand of the enemy without the Romans losing a man. He was rewarded for this, in addition to his triumph, by having a house built for him upon the Palatine Hill at the public expense. And whereas all other street doors open inwards, the doors of that house were made to open outwards, as a perpetual memorial of the honour paid him by the people, who thus made way for him. It is said that all the doors in Greece used once to open this way, arguing from the comedies, in which those who are coming out of a house always knock at the door, to warn those who are passing or standing near not to be struck by the leaves of the door, as they open.

XXI. Next year Poplicola was consul for the fourth time. There was an expectation of a war against the Latins and Sabines combined.

Moreover the city seemed to have displeased the gods; for all the pregnant women were delivered prematurely, and of imperfectly formed children. Poplicola, after appeasing the gods below according to the injunctions of the Sibylline books, re-established certain games in accordance with an oracle, brought the city into a more hopeful state of mind, and began to consider what he had to fear from earthly foes, for the enemy's army was large and formidable. There was one Appius Clausus, a Sabine, of great wealth and remarkable personal strength, and a virtuous and eloquent man, who, like all great men, was the object of envy and ill-will to many. He was accused by his enemies of having put an end to the war, because he wished to increase the power of Rome, in order to enable him the more easily to triumph over the liberties of his own country, and make himself king of it. Perceiving that the populace eagerly listened to these tales, and that he was an object of dislike to the war party and the army, he began to fear impeachment: so, having numerous followers, besides his personal friends and relatives, he was able to divide the state into two parties. This caused great delay in the Sabines' preparations for attacking the Romans, and Poplicola, feeling it to be his duty not merely to watch but to assist Clausus, sent envoys, who spoke to him as follows: "Poplicola feels that you are a man of honour, who would be unwilling to take vengeance upon your countrymen, although you have been shamefully treated by them. But if you choose to put yourself in safety by leaving your country and a people that hates you, he will receive you, both in his public and his private capacity, in a manner worthy of your own high character and of the dignity of Rome." After much deliberation, Clausus decided that he could not do better than accept this offer, and assembled all his friends. They in their turn influenced many others, so that he was able to transplant to Rome five thousand of the most peaceful and respectable families of the Sabine nation. Poplicola, who had notice of their arrival, welcomed them kindly and graciously. He made them all citizens of Rome, and gave each of them two acres of land along the river Anio. He gave Clausus twenty-five acres, and enrolled him among the Senators. Clausus afterwards became one of the first men in Rome for wisdom and power, and his descendants, the Claudian family, was one of the most illustrious in history.

XXII. Though the disputes of the Sabines were settled by this migration, yet their popular orators would not let them rest, but vehemently urged that they ought not to let Appius, a deserter and an enemy, prevail upon them to let the Romans go unpunished--a thing which he could not persuade them to do when he was present among them. They proceeded to Fidenae with a great army and encamped there, and laid two thousand men in ambush before Rome, in wooded and broken ground, meaning in the morning to send out a few horsemen to plunder ostentatiously. These men were ordered to ride up close to Rome, and then to retire till their pursuers were drawn into the snare. Poplicola heard of this plan the same day from deserters, and quickly made all necessary arrangements. At evening he sent Postumius Balbus, his son-in-law, with three thousand men to occupy the tops of the hills under which the Sabine ambush was placed. His colleague, Lucretius, was ordered to take the swiftest-footed and noblest youth of the city, and pursue the plundering horsemen, while he himself with the rest of the forces made a circuitous march and outflanked the enemy. It chanced that a thick mist came on about dawn, in the midst of which Postumius charged down from the hills upon the men in ambush with a loud shout, while Lucretius sent his men to attack the cavalry, and Poplicola fell upon the enemy's camp. The Sabines were routed in every quarter, and even when fighting no longer were cut down by the Romans, their rash confidence proving ruinous to them. Each party thought that the others must be safe, and did not care to stay and fight where they were, but those who were in the camp ran to those in the ambush, and those in the ambush towards the camp, each of them meeting those with whom they hoped to take refuge, and finding that those who they had hoped would help them needed help themselves. The Sabines would have been all put to the sword, had not the neighbouring city of Fidenae afforded them a refuge, especially for the men from the camp. Such as could not reach Fidenae were either put to death or taken prisoners.

XXIII. The Romans, accustomed as they are to refer all great success to the intervention of Heaven, thought that the whole glory of this achievement was due to the general. The first thing heard was the victorious soldiers declaring that Poplicola had delivered up the enemy to them blind and lame, and all but in chains, for them to slaughter at their ease. The people were enriched by the plunder and the sale of the prisoners for slaves. Poplicola enjoyed a triumph, and previously delivering over the administration of the city to the two succeeding consuls, died shortly afterwards, having attained to the highest pitch of glory that man can reach. The people, as if they had done nothing during his life to honour him as he deserved, and were now for the first time to show their gratitude, decreed him a public funeral, and moreover that every person should contribute the coin called _quadrans_, to show him respect. The women also made a common agreement to wear mourning for him for a whole year. He was buried by a decree of the people within the city near the place called Velia, and all his family were given the privilege of burial there. At the present day not one of the family is actually buried there, but the corpse is carried thither, and laid down, while some one places a lighted torch under it for a moment, after which it is carried away. By this ceremony they claim the right, although they forego it, and bury the corpse outside the city.

COMPARISON OF SOLON AND POPLICOLA.

I. It is a point peculiar to this comparison, and which does not occur in any of the other Lives which I have written, that in turn one imitates and the other bears witness to his fellow's deeds. Observe, for instance, Solon's definition of happiness before Croesus, how much better it suits Poplicola than Tellus. He says that Tellus was fortunate because of his good luck, his virtue, and his noble children; but yet he makes no mention of him or of his children in his poetry, and he never was a man of any renown, or held any high office.

Now Poplicola's virtues made him the most powerful and glorious of the Romans during his life, and six hundred years after his death the very noblest families of Rome, those named Publicola and Messala and Valerius, are proud to trace their descent from him, even at the present day. Tellus, it is true, died like a brave man fighting in the ranks, but Poplicola slew his enemies, which is much better than being killed oneself, and made his country victorious by skill as a general and a statesman, and, after triumphing and enjoying honours of every kind, died the death which Solon thought so enviable. Besides, Solon, in his answer to Mimnermus about the time of life, has written the verses:

"To me may favouring Heaven send,
That all my friends may mourn my end,"

in which he bears witness to the good fortune of Poplicola; for he, when he died, was mourned not only by all his friends and relations but by the whole city, in which thousands wept for him, while all the women wore mourning for him as if he were a son or father of them all that they had lost.

Solon says in his poems,

"I long for wealth, but not procured
By means unholy."

Now Poplicola not only possessed wealth honourably acquired, but also was able to spend it, much to his credit, in relieving the needy. Thus if Solon was the wisest, Poplicola was certainly the most fortunate of men; for what Solon prayed for as the greatest blessing, Poplicola possessed and enjoyed to the end of his days.

II. Thus has Solon done honour to Poplicola; and he again honoured Solon by regarding him as the best model a man could follow in establishing a free constitution: for he took away the excessive power and dignity of the consuls and made them inoffensive to the people, and indeed made use of many of Solon's own laws; as he empowered the people to elect their own consuls, and gave defendants a right of appeal to the people from other courts, just as Solon had done. He did not, like Solon, make two senates, but he increased the existing one to nearly double its number. His grounds for the appointment of quaestors was to give the consul leisure for more important matters, if he was an honest man; and if he was a bad man, to remove the opportunity of fraud which he would have had if he were supreme over the state and the treasury at once. In hatred of tyrants Poplicola exceeded Solon, for he fixed the penalty for a man who might be proved to be attempting to make himself king, whereas the Roman allowed any one to kill him without trial. And while Solon justly prided himself upon his having been offered the opportunity to make himself despot, with the full consent of his fellow-countrymen, and yet having refused it, Poplicola deserves even greater credit for having been placed in an office of almost despotic power, and having made it more popular, not using the privileges with which he was entrusted. Indeed Solon seems to have been the first to perceive that a people

"Obeys its rulers best,
When not too free, yet not too much opprest."

III. The relief of debtors was a device peculiar to Solon, which, more than anything else confirmed the liberty of the citizens. For laws to establish equality are of no use if poor men are prevented from enjoying it because of their debts; and in the states which appear to be the most free, men become mere slaves to the rich, and conduct the whole business of the state at their dictation. It should be especially noted that although an abolition of debt would naturally produce a civil war, yet this measure of Solon's, like an unusual but powerful dose of medicine, actually put an end to the existing condition of internal strife; for the well-known probity of Solon's character outweighed the discredit of the means to which he resorted. In fact Solon began his public life with greater glory than Poplicola, for he was the leading spirit, and followed no man, but entirely single handed effected the most important reforms; while Poplicola was more enviable and fortunate at the close of his career.

Solon himself saw his own constitution overthrown, while that of Poplicola preserved order in the city down to the time of the civil wars; and the reason was that Solon, as soon as he had enacted his laws, went on his travels, leaving them written on wooden tablets, defenceless against all assailants; whereas Poplicola remained at home, acted as consul, and by his statesmanship ensured the success and permanence of the new constitution. Moreover, Solon could not stop Peisistratus, although he perceived his designs, but was forced to see a despotism established; while Poplicola destroyed a monarchy which had existed for many years, showing equal virtue with Solon, but greater good fortune and power to enable him to carry out his intentions.

IV. With regard to warlike achievements, Daimachus of Plataea will not even admit that Solon made the campaign against the Megarians, which we have related; but Poplicola both by strategy and personal valour won many great battles. As a statesman, Solon seems to have acted somewhat childishly in pretending that he was mad, in order to make his speech about Salamis, while Poplicola ran the very greatest risks in driving out the tyrant and crushing the conspiracy. He was especially responsible for the chief criminals being put to death, and thus not only drove the Tarquins out of the city, but cut off and destroyed their hopes of return. And while he showed such vigour in enterprises that required spirit and courage, he was equally admirable in peaceful negotiations and the arts of persuasion; for he skilfully won over the formidable Porsena to be the friend instead of the enemy of Rome.

Still we may be reminded that Solon stirred up the Athenians to capture Salamis, which they had given up to the Megarians, while Poplicola withdrew the Romans from a country which they had conquered. We must, however, consider the circumstances under which these events took place. A subtle politician deals with every thing so as to turn it to the greatest advantage, and will often lose a part in order to save the whole, and by sacrificing some small advantage gain another more important one, as did Poplicola on that occasion; for he, by withdrawing from a foreign country, preserved his own, gained the enemy's camp for the Romans, who before were only too glad to save their city from ruin, and at last, by converting his enemy into an arbitrator and winning his cause, obtained all the fruits of victory: for Porsena put an end to the war, and left behind him all his war material to show his respect for the noble character of the consul.

LIFE OF THEMISTOKLES.

I. Themistokles came of a family too obscure to entitle him to distinction. His father, Neokles, was a middle-class Athenian citizen, of the township of Phrearri and the tribe Leontis. He was base born on his mother's side, as the epigram tells us:

"My name's Abrotonon from Thrace,
I boast not old Athenian race;
Yet, humble though my lineage be,
Themistokles was born of me."

Phanias, however, says that the mother of Themistokles was a Carian, not a Thracian, and that her name was not Abrotonon but Euterpe. Manthes even tells us that she came from the city of Halikarnassus in Caria. All base-born Athenians were made to assemble at Kynosarges, a gymnasium outside the walls sacred to Herakles, who was regarded as base born among the gods because his mother was a mortal; and Themistokles induced several youths of noble birth to come to Kynosarges with him and join in the wrestling there, an ingenious device for destroying the exclusive privileges of birth. But, for all that, he evidently was of the blood of Lykomedes; for when the barbarians burned down the temple of the Initiation at Phlya, which belonged to the whole race of the descendants of Lykomedes, it was restored by Themistokles, as we are told by Simonides.

II. He is agreed by all to have been a child of vigorous impulses, naturally clever, and inclined to take an interest in important affairs and questions of statesmanship. During his holidays and times of leisure he did not play and trifle as other children do, but was always found arranging some speech by himself and thinking it over. The speech was always an attack on, or a defence of, some one of his playfellows. His schoolmaster was wont to say, "You will be nothing petty, my boy; you will be either a very good or a very bad man."

In his learning, he cared nothing for the exercises intended to form the character, and mere showy accomplishments and graces, but eagerly applied himself to all real knowledge, trusting to his natural gifts to enable him to master what was thought to be too abstruse for his time of life. In consequence of this, when in society he was ridiculed by those who thought themselves well mannered and well educated, he was obliged to make the somewhat vulgar retort that he could not tune a lute or play upon the harp, but he could make a small and obscure state great and glorious.

In spite of all this, Stesimbrotus says that Themistokles was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and attended the lectures of Melissus the physicist; but here he is wrong as to dates. Melissus was the general who was opposed to Perikles, a much younger man than Themistokles, when he was besieging Samos, and Anaxagoras was one of Perikles's friends. One is more inclined to believe those who tell us that Themistokles was a follower and admirer of Mnesiphilus of Phrearri, who was neither an orator nor a natural philosopher, but a man who had deeply studied what went by the name of wisdom, but was really political sharp practice and expedients of statesmanship, which he had, as it were, inherited as a legacy from Solon. Those who in later times mixed up this science with forensic devices, and used it, not to deal with the facts of politics, but the abstract ideas of speculative philosophy, were named Sophists. Themistokles used to converse with this man when he had already begun his political career. In his childhood he was capricious and unsteady, his genius, as yet untempered by reason and experience, showing great capacities both for good and evil, and after breaking out into vice, as he himself used afterwards to admit, saying that the colts which are the hardest to break in usually make the most valuable horses when properly taught. But as for the stories which some have fabricated out of this, about his being disinherited by his father, and about his mother committing suicide through grief at her son's disgrace, they seem to be untrue. On the other hand, some writers tell us that his father, wishing to dissuade him from taking part in politics, pointed out to him the old triremes lying abandoned on the beach, and told him that politicians, when the people had no farther use for them, were cast aside in like manner.

III. Very early in life Themistokles took a vigorous part in public affairs, possessed by vehement ambition. Determined from the very outset that he would become the leading man in the state, he eagerly entered into all the schemes for displacing those who where then at the head of affairs, especially attacking Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus, whose policy he opposed on every occasion. Yet his enmity with this man seems to have had a very boyish commencement; for they both entertained a passion for the beautiful Stesilaus, who, we are told by Ariston the philosopher, was descended from a family residing in the island of Keos. After this difference they espoused different parties in the state, and their different temper and habits widened the breach between them. Aristeides was of a mild and honourable nature, and as a statesman cared nothing for popularity or personal glory, but did what he thought right with great caution and strict rectitude. He was thus often brought into collision with Themistokles, who was trying to engage the people in many new schemes, and to introduce startling reforms, by which he would himself have gained credit, and which Aristeides steadily opposed.

He is said to have been so recklessly ambitious and so frenziedly eager to take part in great events, that though he was very young at the time of the battle of Marathon, when the country rang with the praises of the generalship of Miltiades, he was often to be seen buried in thought, passing sleepless nights and refusing invitations to wine-parties, and that he answered those who asked him the cause of his change of habits, that the trophies of Miltiades would not let him sleep. Other men thought that the victory of Marathon had put an end to the war, but Themistokles saw that it was but the prelude to a greater contest, in which he prepared himself to stand forth as the champion of Greece, and, foreseeing long before what was to come, endeavoured to make the city of Athens ready to meet it.

IV. First of all, he had the courage to propose that the Athenians, instead of dividing amongst themselves the revenues derived from the silver mines at Laurium, should construct ships out of this fund for the war with Aegina. This was then at its height, and the Aeginetans, who had a large navy, were masters of the sea. By this means Themistokles was more easily enabled to carry his point, not trying to terrify the people by alluding to Darius and the Persians, who lived a long way off, and whom few feared would ever come to attack them, but by cleverly appealing to their feelings of patriotism against the Aeginetans, to make them consent to the outlay.

With that money a hundred triremes were built, which were subsequently used to fight against Xerxes. After this he kept gradually turning the thoughts of the Athenians in the direction of the sea, because their land force was unable even to hold its own against the neighbouring states, while with a powerful fleet they could both beat off the barbarians and make themselves masters of the whole of Greece. Thus, as Plato says, instead of stationary soldiers as they were, he made them roving sailors, and gave rise to the contemptuous remark that Themistokles took away from the citizens of Athens the shield and the spear, and reduced them to the oar and the rower's bench. This, we are told by Stesimbrotus, he effected after quelling the opposition of Miltiades, who spoke on the other side. Whether his proceedings at this time were strictly constitutional or no I shall leave to others to determine; but that the only safety of Greece lay in its fleet, and that those triremes were the salvation of the Athenians after their city was taken, can be proved by the testimony, among others, of Xerxes himself; for although his land force was unbroken, he fled after his naval defeat, as though no longer able to contend with the Greeks, and he left Mardonius behind more to prevent pursuit, in my opinion, than with any hopes of conquest.

V. Some writers tell us that he was a keen man of business, and explain that his grand style of living made this necessary; for he made costly sacrifices, and entertained foreigners in a splendid manner, all of which required a large expenditure; but some accuse him of meanness and avarice, and even say that he sold presents which were sent for his table. When Philides the horse-dealer refused to sell him a colt, he threatened that he would soon make a wooden horse of the man's house; meaning that he would stir up lawsuits and claims against him from some of his relations.

In ambition he surpassed every one. When yet a young and unknown man he prevailed upon Epikles of Hermione, the admired performer on the harp, to practise his art in his house, hoping thereby to bring many people to it to listen. And he displeased the Greeks when he went to the Olympian games by vying with Kimon in the luxury of his table, his tents, and his other furniture. It was thought very proper for Kimon, a young man of noble birth, to do so; but for a man who had not yet made himself a reputation, and had not means to support the expense, such extravagance seemed mere vulgar ostentation. In the dramatic contest, which even then excited great interest and rivalry, the play whose expenses he paid for won the prize. He put up a tablet in memory of his success bearing the words: Themistokles of Phrearri was choragus, Phrynichus wrote the play, Adeimantus was archon. Yet he was popular, for he knew every one of the citizens by name, and gave impartial judgment in all cases referred to him as arbitrator. Once, when Simonides of Keos asked him to strain a point in his favour, Themistokles, who was a general at the time, answered that Simonides would be a bad poet if he sang out of tune; and he would be a bad magistrate if he favoured men against the law. At another time he rallied Simonides on his folly in abusing the Corinthians, who inhabited so fine a city, and in having his own statue carved, though he was so ugly. He continued to increase in popularity by judiciously courting the favour of the people, and was at length able to secure the triumph of his own party, and the banishment of his rival Aristeides.

VI. As the Persians were now about to invade Greece, the Athenians deliberated as to who should be their leader. It is said that most men refused the post of General through fear, but that Epikydes, the son of Euphemides, a clever mob-orator, but cowardly and accessible to bribes, desired to be appointed, and seemed very likely to be elected. Themistokles, fearing that the state would be utterly ruined if its affairs fell into such hands, bribed him into forgetting his ambitious designs, and withdrawing his candidature.